The many faces of James VI & I

History Extra podcast

History Extra

History

4.3 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Historian Clare Jackson delves into the life and reputation of James VI & I – a king who, says Jackson, has a legacy that has been much refracted and maligned in the 400 years since his death. In her reappraisal of the king's life, she considers the violence that beset James throughout his life, and how that shaped the king's attitudes towards diplomacy, learning and religion. Speaking to Elinor Evans, Jackson brings James's reputation up to date – and shares her pick for the king's perfect dinner companion. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	For people living with dementia, Christmas can be confusing, overwhelming, heartbreaking.
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0:30.2	Think about cheese. Make your thoughts cheesier.
0:34.4	Now add 100% chicken breast fillet, Chipopla sauce and Am cheese melt, and it's giving the new cheesy chicken stack at McDonald's.
0:42.5	Did we mention it's cheesy?
0:45.8	Available to the 4th of Jan, 2026 from 11am.
0:48.3	Price and participation may vary. Subjects availability.
1:00.8	For more than 400 years, the reputation of King James 6th of Scotland and 1st of England has been refracted and reflected through many lenses. In today's episode of the History
1:06.0	Extra podcast, historian Claire Jackson will be exploring this multifaceted legacy, examining the many threads of the King's reputation that she explores in her new biography, The Mirror of Great Britain.
1:18.7	Putting the questions to her was Eleanor Evans.
1:21.5	Today we're talking about your new biography of King James VI of Scotland and First of England.
1:26.5	And I'd like to start with a few words.
1:28.5	We've got agitate, we've got decoration, we've got imposter, preoccupied and quintessence.
1:35.3	And these really surprised me as just a few of the words that first appear in the writing of King James I's Six and First.
1:42.5	James' own words are foregrounded throughout your biography,
1:45.2	and I hoped we could start with this idea of him as a wordsmith monarch. Yes, those are words
1:50.3	to which James is credited by the Oxford English Dictionary of being the first usage in print.
1:55.5	They may not be. I mean, the OED is notoriously unrepresentative in terms of the way in which
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